The housing agreement concluded between Quebec and Ottawa includes “common objectives”.
“Well, there are common objectives,” said Pablo Rodriguez, Justin Trudeau’s political lieutenant for Quebec, on Tuesday upon his arrival at the council of ministers meeting when asked about the absence of “conditions”.
“There are no conditions as such, but there are indeed common objectives on the creation of social housing,” a source in the Quebec government who was not authorized to speak confirmed to The Canadian Press. publicly of the file.
And in any case, Quebec intended to focus on social housing. “We all live on the same planet,” said this source.
Doubled investment
The agreement that the levels of government revealed on Friday that they had reached is an “agreement in principle,” both sides said. It should be presented to the Quebec Council of Ministers in the coming days, possibly as early as Wednesday, and the risks that the agreement will be rejected are described as “minimal”.
“Quebec is committed to doubling the funds,” Minister Rodriguez rejoiced on Tuesday. So we are talking about more than 900 million dollars, but 1.8 billion, which is the only case in Canada, so twice as much money, which is good news. »
At the Quebec government, the official said that collaboration with the new federal Minister of Housing, Sean Fraser, was day and night compared to that with his predecessor, Ahmed Hussen.
He described Mr Fraser as an “open”, “constructive” minister with an “attitude […] positive”, while on the contrary Mr. Hussen “did not even respond to the letters”, so much so that Quebec wondered how to negotiate “when the federal minister does not even write to you”.
An agreement to reveal the terms of the agreement should take place in the coming weeks. The press secretary of the Quebec Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, simply said that it is “possible” that it will be in the presence of the prime ministers of Quebec, François Legault, and of Canada, Justin Trudeau.
Cities waiting
Two weeks ago, Mr. Legault called on Ottawa to reach an agreement immediately with his province in order to be able to incorporate federal money into its economic update scheduled for November 7.
The Housing Acceleration Fund (FACL) was announced in the 2022 federal budget, but was officially launched last July. It aims in particular to reduce administrative formalities and update local policies on zoning.
The initiative, which is led by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), is scheduled to last until 2026-2027. It is part of the National Housing Strategy, which provides for $82 billion in investments over a decade.
The envelope allocated to the project is $4 billion across the country and aims to accelerate the construction of 100,000 new housing units from coast to coast within five years.
Under the FACL, Ottawa can sign agreements directly with municipalities, as was done with Halifax, Nova Scotia, and London and Vaughan, both in Ontario.
In Quebec, the law prohibits the federal government from going beyond the province to negotiate such agreements.
Several Quebec cities, including Quebec, Laval, Sherbrooke and Gatineau, have submitted a request to the FACL and have indicated that they are impatiently awaiting the intergovernmental agreement for the future.